Fascism Books - Page 4

The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich (Modern War Studies)

Robert M. Citino

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For Frederick the Great, the prescription for warfare was simple: kurz und vives ("short and lively")--wars that relied upon swift, powerful, and decisive military operations. Robert Citino takes us on a dramatic march through Prussian and German military history to show how that primal theme played out time and time again.

Citino focuses on operational warfare to demonstrate continuity in German military campaigns from the time of Elector Frederick Wilhelm and his great "sleigh-drive" against the Swedes to the age of Adolf Hitler and the blitzkrieg to the gates of Moscow. Along the way, he underscores the role played by the Prussian army in elevating a small, vulnerable state to the ranks of the European powers, describes how nineteenth-century victories over Austria and France made the German army the most respected in Europe, and reviews the lessons learned from the trenches of World War I.

Through this long view, Citino reveals an essential recurrent pattern--characterized by rapid troop movements and surprise attacks, maneuvers to outflank the enemy, and a determination to annihilate the opposition--that made it possible for the Germans to fight armies often larger than their own. He highlights the aggressiveness of Prussian and German commanders--trained simply to find the enemy and keep attacking--and destroys the myth of Auftragstaktik ("flexible command"), replacing it with the independence of subordinate commanders. He also brings new interpretations to well-known operations, such as Moltke's 1866 campaign and the opening campaign in 1914, while introducing readers to less familiar but important battles like Langensalza and the Annaberg.

The German way of war, as Citino shows, was fostered by the development of a widely accepted and deeply embedded military culture that supported and rewarded aggression. His book offers a fresh look at one of the most remarkable, respected, and reviled militaries of the past half millennium and marks another sterling contribution to the history of operational warfare.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Crossing Hitler: The Man Who Put the Nazis on the Witness Stand

Benjamin Carter Hett

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Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

During a 1931 trial of four Nazi stormtroopers, known as the Eden Dance Palace trial, Hans Litten grilled Hitler in a brilliant and merciless three-hour cross-examination, forcing him into multiple contradictions and evasions and finally reducing him to helpless and humiliating rage (the transcription of Hitler's full testimony is included.) At the time, Hitler was still trying to prove his embrace of legal methods, and distancing himself from his stormtroopers. The courageous Litten revealed his true intentions, and in the process, posed a real threat to Nazi ambition.
When the Nazis seized power two years after the trial, friends and family urged Litten to flee the country. He stayed and was sent to the concentration camps, where he worked on translations of medieval German poetry, shared the money and food he was sent by his wealthy family, and taught working-class inmates about art and literature. When Jewish prisoners at Dachau were locked in their barracks for weeks at a time, Litten kept them sane by reciting great works from memory. After five years of torture and hard labor-and a daring escape that failed-Litten gave up hope of survival. His story was ultimately tragic but, as Benjamin Hett writes in this gripping narrative, it is also redemptive. "It is a story of human nobility in the face of barbarism."
The first full-length biography of Litten, the book also explores the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic and the terror of Nazi rule in Germany after 1933. [in sidebar] Winner of the 2007 Fraenkel Prize for outstanding work of contemporary history, in manuscript. To be published throughout the world.

Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika

Alfons Heck

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A must read to understand how entire nations can go wrong 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I first heard of this book in the late 1980s, when I was at Western Kentucky University. Alfons Heck was touring universities with a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, and together they would tell the stories. Mr. Heck was amazing -- a sweet, gentle old man, now not only horrified at what he had participated in, but very worried that this could happen again, that people could allow themselves to be twisted in such a way. It was his message over and over -- look for ways that you are being manipulated, think twice before you look for blame on how your life or the economy is going, or you get caught up in a movement, etc. I bought the book right then and there. It is not a very well-written book, true, but the honesty and detail are spell-binding and put this book in the five star range. It's a must-read for anyone wanting to try to understand how entire communities/nations can go so very wrong. I had him sign my copy, and he said at the time that the rights had been bought to make it into a movie. I asked him who he wanted to play his part. He looked up from the book, smiled, and said, "Someone good-looking!" The Jewish lady he was touring with came up at last and put her hand on his shoulder. "Alfons, Alfons, we must go now. We have to go." It was said with such affection.

Editorial Review:

The author's story of his rise to power in the Hitler Youth under the spell of Adolf Hitler.

Albert Speer His Battle With Truth

Gitta Sereny

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Complexity, Ambiguity; Human 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I have never seen an author come close to Sereny in her ability to portray and accept the complexity of human nature, which she does with this Albert Speer book to the nth degree; it is a work of art.

This book is never dry and never didactic. Unlike like some historians, Ms. Sereny never forgets that at the root of her story lie human beings, and righfully they should be at the center of any story of human history. She always relates it back to the human being.

I find Publisher's Weekly's assertion that she was his apologist to be laughable; she never, ever lets him off the hook. One feels that she is a very moral human being.

This 700+ page book is never dull. The portrait she etches of Albert Speer and the people of his time is indelible; I doubt you will ever forget it. And if you live with your books the way I do you will find yourself thinking about your own morality when you are through.

I read her "Marybelle" book a few years ago and was bowled over by it; it is as fine a book as the Speer book though much smaller. In this country where we are having a field day charging and sentencing children as adults it is a necessity to read.

Let me end this by saying Gitta Sereny is of the caliber of Hannah Arendt, though the better writer!

Editorial Review:

With 24 pages of photographs

The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

If anyone still questions the power which myth exercises over the human mind, he should read The Occult Rules of Nazism."
—Anthony Storr

"An extensive survey of . . . theosophy, astrology, and `ariosophy' (Aryan-racist-occult theories) . . . An intriguing study of apocalyptic fantasies."
—Times Literary Supplement

Nearly half a century after the defeat of the Third Reich, Nazism remains a subject of extensive historical inquiry, general interest, and, alarmingly, a source of inspiration for resurgent fascism in Europe. Goodrick-Clarke's powerful and timely book traces the intellectual roots of Nazism back to a number of influential occult and millenarian sects in the Habsburg Empire during its waning years. These sects combined notions of popular nationalism with an advocacy of Aryan racism and a proclaimed need for German world-rule.

This book provides the first serious account of the way in which Nazism was influenced by powerful millenarian and occult sects that thrived in Germany and Austria almost fifty years before the rise to power of Adolf Hitler.

These millenarian sects (principally the Ariosophists) espoused a mixture of popular nationalism, Aryan racism, and occultism to support their advocacy of German world-rule. Over time their ideas and symbols, filtered through nationalist-racist groups associated with the infant Nazi party, came to exert a strong influence on Himmler's SS.

The fantasies thus fueled were played out with terrifying consequences in the realities structured into the Third Reich: Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka, the hellish museums of Nazi apocalypse, had psychic roots reaching back to millenial visions of occult sects. Beyond what the TImes Literary Supplement calls an intriguing study of apocalyptic fantasies, this bizarre and fascinating story contains lessons we cannot afford to ignore.

Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945

R. J. B. Bosworth

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fascinating, yet heavily flawed, and somewhat dishonest. 1 out of 5 stars.
11 of 15 people found this review helpful.

I have had considerable interest in fascist Italy for about six years now, so finding this book was absolutely thrilling to me. I thought it would provide a balanced and unflinching look at fascist Italy, relying on factual reporting that was not influenced by opinions. In fact, there is some extent to which this is the case; massive amounts of fantastic research that demonstrates tremendous experience and knowledge, and the number of personal stories is simply staggering. Great gaps remain, however. In reading other books and sources, one comes across many of the same things Bosworth discusses, such as shoddy economic planning, meaningless projects, corruption, and shallow propaganda. On the other hand, one also encounters the fourth largest navy in the world, recreational camps that considerably bolstered national fitness and inspired Hitlers phenomenal Strength Through Joy program, armored corps that were innovative and, in fact, quite effective, and an air force that made unrecognized but significant contributions to the axis war effort. Other elements of Bosworth's book seem under emphasized. Progress against malaria, economic expansion into Libya and Ethiopia, and the extent to which Fascist Italy exhausted itself fighting in Spain are all mentioned, but, despite comprising a huge amount of attention for the regime, are not given more than a bit of documentation. Instead, we are treated to a book full of proofs that fascism was only skin deep, a fact that becomes evident in any ideology or government once the odds are clearly against it. That the odds would be against Italy is, of course, a foregone conclusion. Italy was a country that was, by comparison, little effected by the great depression , yet still had an eighth the radios and cars of great Britain, and no radar and other crucial technologies. Of course, Bosworth's comparisons to Liberal Italy are appreciated, but he still discusses Italy's inherent weaknesses far too little. Of course, Bosworth was not attempting to explain why Italy lost the Second World War so badly, but many of Fascist Italy's weaknesses were made manifest in those years, and simply would not have been had, for example, Italy's investment in Franco paid off with a Spanish ally, cutting off Egypt, Greece, and Yugoslavia thanks to Gibraltar and probably winning the Axis the war.

It is Bosworth's ignorance of and lack of attention to warfare that is the most serious flaw in my mind, especially given that this was by far the most emphasized point of the state that Bosworth studies. Bosworth simply briefly mentions that the Italian navy (which constituted a huge emphasis in fascist Italy) was shamefully defeated in several battles, his only comments about the Italian navy in the book, which of course go to suggest that Italy was outdated and a paper thin state. Perhaps Bosworth, the faithful student of Italian history, has not heard of the battles of First and Second Sirte, in which Italian naval forces and mine fields savaged their British opposition? Perhaps Bosworth has not heard of British operations Harpoon, Vigorous, Pedestal, and Agreement, all of which were allied supply or offensive attempts thwarted by either Italian or a combination of Italian and German forces, with Italians composing the entire fight at sea (with a handful of U-Boat exceptions) and a significant part of the aerial forces involved? It seems more likely that Bosworth has heard of them, and chose to omit them because they did not support his point. Considering the nature of the book as overwhelmingly disposed to personal stories, and the overwhelming majority of those being anti-fascist in nature, as well as other examples of pick-and-choose reporting (the Italian air force, Italian commercial interests, Italian international relations, Italy's economy) it is difficult for me to accept that Bosworth is in fact providing solid evidence for any solid argument at all. Of course, I would not question the accuracy of his reporting, simply it's bias and probable selectivity. I enjoyed the read, and am glad that it is being written on and remembered, because we should never forget the crimes of Mussolini and the horrors and lies of authoritarianism, but what I already know of Mussolini's Italy leads me to bring serious doubts to any analysis of this book. I would, nevertheless, encourage any interested reader to purchase this; it is enlightening on a number of things, and is a meaty tome, but I find it sad that in refuting the fascist state, an author feels compelled to skew the facts against it, when they should do it themselves.

Editorial Review:

With Mussolini ’s Italy, R.J.B. Bosworth—the foremost scholar on the subject writing in English—vividly brings to life the period in which Italians participated in one of the twentieth century’s most notorious political experiments. Il Duce’s Fascists were the original totalitarians, espousing a cult of violence and obedience that inspired many other dictatorships, Hitler’s first among them. But as Bosworth reveals, many Italians resisted its ideology, finding ways, ingenious and varied, to keep Fascism from taking hold as deeply as it did in Germany. A sweeping chronicle of struggle in terrible times, this is the definitive account of Italy’s darkest hour.

A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Bonhoeffer's Theology in Context 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The great gift of this reader is not just that it provides a diverse sampling of Bonhoeffer's works and sermons, but that the editor's provide an historical context in which to read and therefore, understand the progression of his thoughts.

It is an accesable grouping of his writings. I bought a lot of books to prepare to a conference and found this to be the most helpful review of his work.

It contains, sermons, poetry and correpondence along with all his major and quite a few important minor works with introductions that fit it into the context of history and his personal and theological development.

Editorial Review:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was only thirty-nine years old when he was executed in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, yet his courage, vision, and brilliance have greatly influenced the twentieth-century Church and theology. Particularly through his bestselling classic, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer profoundly shaped such minds and movements as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Leonardo Boff, civil rights and leberation theology.

A Testament to Freedom, completely revised and expanded for this edition, includes previously untranslated writings, excerpts from major books, sermons, and selected letters spanning the years of Bonhoeffer's pastoral and theological career. This magnificent volume takes readers on a historical and biographical journey that follows Bonhoeffer through the various stages of his life--as teacher, ecumenist, pastor, preacher, seminary director, prophet in the Nazi era and, finally, as martyr in pursuit of peace and justice.

Fascism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Kevin Passmore

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? This book argues that it is both: fascism unleashes violence against the left and ethnic minorities, but also condemns the bourgeoisie for its "softness". Kevin Passmore opens his book with a series of "scenes from fascist life"--a secret meeting of the Romanian Iron Guard; Mussolini meeting the king of Italy; a rally of Hungarian doctors calling for restrictions on the number of Jews entering the profession. He then looks at the paradoxes of fascism through its origins in the political and social crisis of the late nineteenth century, the history of fascist movements and regimes in Italy and Germany, and the fortunes of "failed" fascist movements in Romania, Hungary and Spain. He shows how fascism employs propaganda and popular culture to propagate itself and how it exported its ideas outside Europe, through Nazi and Spanish post-war escape routes to Latin America. The book concludes with a discussion of the recent revival of the extreme right in Austria, Italy, France, and Russia.

Hitler: A Study in Tyranny

Alan Bullock

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

How does a homicidal tyrant come to power and rule? 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This was the best profile of Hitler when I read it forty years ago (it's only rival was Shirer's `Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'). Bullock skillfully explores Hitler's public and personal world in three sections (Party Leader, Chancellor, and War-Lord). Some of his surprising habits (non-smoker, vegetarian, and teetotaler) stand in contrast with the criminal war he launched and the innocents he killed.

`A Study in Tyranny' has since been supplemented with accounts by Fest, Kershaw, and several others, but Bullock remains well worth reading for those serious in the subject.

The Consequences of Tyranny 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Allan Bullock's biography is comprehensive. Any history book exceeding 800 pages falls into this category. However, do not let the scale of the book deter the reader from gaining an insight to this mad and evil man.

In terms of the history of the 20th Century, Hitler is certainly one of that century's more influential characters. From a political perspective, the "pantheon" of significance would include Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Hitler. Note that no democrats get a look in here. Perhaps the nearest in terms of influence would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Thus, no history of the last century can be complete without a thorough understanding of Adolf Hitler and his vast and demonic influence.

Bullock's work covers Hitler's life in its entirety. We begin with his birth in 1889 in Austria near the Bavarian border, through his years as a rabble rouser and gutter politician and finish with his last days in the bunker in Berlin with the Red Army literally only a few hundred metres from capturing him. Yet through all this period, Hitler's core personality is unchanged. He has a seemingly innate hatred for Jews combined with a belief that Germany was conspired against from the inside when the First World War armistice was signed. These views lead Hitler to indulge his fantasies that Germany will rise again and that only he is able to lead the nation. The end, of course, is the absolute defeat of Germany such that a platform is provided for its splitting in two during the cold war. It also provides the scope for Stalin to impose his wishes upon Eastern Europe. This piece of modern day imperialism only ended in the final years of last century.

To complete a reading Allan Bullock's work is not an easy task. It is truly an immense and impressive work. Yet, if the reader perseveres with the task, the reward is that one is left with a clearer picture of the mad man who legacy was death and destruction. It is the diary of madness succeeding over reason for too long. The consequences of this "success" were truly horrible.

Editorial Review:

The classic biography of Hitler that remains, years after its publication, one of the most authoritative and readable accounts of his life. Here in an abridged edition.

Nazis and the Occult

Paul Roland

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Author responds 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 18 people found this review helpful.

I don't normally post reviews of my own books, but I felt compelled to set the record straight for those who might be considering purchasing my 'Nazis and the Occult' and who might be put off by Charles Levenson's misleading review as I consider this a very serious and psychological study of a subject which has been sensationalised and mythologised in the past. Mr Levenson may object to the look of the book, but no one could over look the fact that I make it very clear that Hitler and his circle were NOT magicians in the traditional sense but manipulators of the mass mind. I also make it clear that Ravenscroft and his Spear of Destiny yarn is just that - pulp fiction that makes for good copy but is certainly not to be taken as historical fact. To dimiss Hitler and his Henchmen as 'evil' or as pawns of a dark power is to take the easy option - we are all responsible for our actions and evil is man made.
I make the point in greater detail in what I consider to be the companion to this book, 'In The Minds Of Murderers - the Art of Criminal Profiling' which includes a lengthy psychological analysis of Hitler and a foreword by FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood.
www.paulroland.net
'No one can deny Paul Roland is a complete master of his subject' (COLIN WILSON)